Summer 2023

Nibbling around
NORMANDY
Gillian Thornton samples and sips her way through cheese and cider country.
In 1962, former French President Charles de
Gaulle famously bemoaned the challenges of
governing a country ‘with 246 different kinds
of cheese’. So the task must be even harder
for today’s President. Sixty years on from De
Gaulle’s gastronomic analogy, France now lists
over 400 varieties, including more than 60
that have been awarded Appellation d’Origine
Contrôlée (AOC) status in France and, more
recently the European label, Appellation
d’Origine Protegée (AOP).
French cheeses come in all shapes, sizes and
strengths, lovingly produced on both artisan
and industrial scale from the milk of cows,
goats and even sheep. But whilst some are
appreciated only in their local area, one French
cheese is famous throughout the world. One
of four AOC cheeses to come from the lush
farmland of Normandy, Camembert is instantly
recognisable with its distinctive circular shape,
wooden box and colourful label.
Normandy’s magnificent coastline is famous
for its top quality seafood but turn your back
on the sea and the bocage landscape of
cattle meadows and apple orchards combine
to produce the perfect cheese course, not to
mention a range of liquid accompaniments to
carry you from apéro to digestif. Even better,
you can always find someone willing to show
you how these signature products are made
and to sell you their produce direct from
source – just ask at any local tourist office or
go to normandie.tourisme.fr for inspiration.
Bocage doesn’t get much more beautiful
than in the Pays d’Auge which lies east of
Caen, ducal HQ for William of Normandy in
the 11th century and the last resting place of
this illegitimate son who took England’s top
job in 1066 as King William I. Think small,
wooded valleys and rich pastures lined with
thick hedgerows, spring trees laden with
apple blossom, and traditional half-timbered
houses. This is inland Normandy at its most
picturesque with some of the most fetching
cattle you’ll see anywhere – brown and white
with uniform brown eye patches.
Spread out around the town of Lisieux, the
Pays d’Auge is the birthplace of traditional
Camembert, invented by farmer’s wife Marie
Harel. There’s a statue of her – and also
one of a very fine cow – in the small town of
Vimoutiers, but her famous cheese was created
at the Manoir de Beaumoncel in the nearby
hamlet of Camembert in 1791.
A priest fleeing from revolutionaries in his native
area of Brie shared a cheese manufacturing
secret with Madame Harel, who went on to
create the cheese we know today. During the
First World War, large quantities were sent to
French troops on the Western Front to boost
morale, helping to turn Camembert into a
national symbol. In 1983, authentic Camembert
de Normandie was given protected status.
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